


Street Food

by rudbeckia



Series: Princess [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: F/F, Spoilers for Leia Princess of Alderaan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-22
Updated: 2018-02-22
Packaged: 2019-03-22 15:45:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,103
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13767330
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/rudbeckia/pseuds/rudbeckia
Summary: Leia is working late trying to find information about the attack on Calderos Station. She has hit a brick wall, and Amilyn Holdo shows up at just the right time to ask Leia out to dinner in her own odd way.Amilyn has a way of seeing things that Leia needs.





	Street Food

**Author's Note:**

> I am reading “Leia: Princess of Alderaan” by Glaudia Gray and stopping to write Amileia as and when I see fit.

Leia put her datapad down with a tut of irritation at her lack of progress, or at least at the thoroughness with which the information she sought had been erased from the Imperial database. There had been little effort made to hide the fact that files had been purged. Directory structures stood as evidence that files _had_ existed on planets such as Itapi Prime and Crait, and Calderos Station was assigned a whole chunk of memory with nothing at all to fill it. It was, she concluded, a fast cover up conducted by someone without the time and expertise to do the job properly.

Footsteps approached so she blanked her screens.  
“Oh, have you finished?” The dreamy voice was quickly followed by a head bearing blue braided hair with decorative feathers that matched cool bluegrey eyes. “This afternoon I overheard someone say you can get Expansion Region food.”  
Leia yawned and stretched then sighed. “I may as well have finished. I’ve hit duracrete here.”  
Almost the instant she made the decision to call it a night, Leia’s stomach growled. Amilyn noticed. “There’s a stall near the plaza over by the library. Smells _very_ interesting.”

It took Leia a few seconds to realise that it was an invitation. She stood up and Amilyn stood back to allow her to leave the cubby she called her office. Leia locked the door, turned to Amilyn and smiled. “Any kind of food sounds good right now.”  
Amilyn offered Leia her hand as if it was a habit, a custom of the people of Gatalenta. Leia stared at the hand then clasped it, her left in Amilyn’s right. After all, it wouldn’t do to get separated in the busy streets.

They completed one slow circuit of the bustling plaza with no food stall in sight. Leia tugged on Amilyn’s hand. “Are you sure you got the right place? I mean, this part of Coruscant isn’t the kind of place you’d expect to find street food.”  
“Why not?” said Amilyn with a shrug. “Look at all these offworlders! I bet they’re all hungry and homesick.”  
Leia was getting grumpier by the second. Just as she was about to pull Amilyn aside and suggest a small cafe she’d been to with her father before, or maybe just say goodnight, Amilyn’s head shot up, she sniffed the air and grinned. “This way!”

Leia scuttled along in Amilyn’s wake. The throng made way for the tall, flamboyant girl in a way they did not for the diminutive princess and soon Leia was faced with a food stall offering things she had never seen before in her short but privileged life.  
“You know about Expansion Region street food?” Leia asked Amilyn, voice a little wary. Amilyn clapped her hands.  
“Not yet! Come on,” she handed over some cash, pointed at tray after tray, holding up two fingers after each, and Leia watched the smeared-apron-wearing server load two of everything into a steaming carton. Amilyn turned to Leia. “Mm, eat first,” she said. “Ask questions later.”

The two girls stood off to the side of the food stall, leaning against a wall, taking turns to choose which common delicacy to eat next. Amilyn asked the stall holder about the things she liked best and repeated the information to herself as if prepping for a pop quiz. Leia found the freedom granted by a place like Coruscant intoxicating. Out here where everyone was _someone,_ she could be anybody, nobody, out with a friend without a care for tomorrow. The thought brought reality back with a bump. Amilyn seemed to sense her mood change, for she took the carton, offered Leia the last sweet-spicy fried morsel, threw her arm around Leia’s shoulders and steered her back towards the plaza.

“Sometimes,” said Amilyn, “the busiest places are the most private.”  
Leia frowned and turned her head to look at Amilyn, but her companion was looking straight ahead with a dreamy smile on her lips. Leia looked around. The square was heaving with people all trying to go somewhere else, and Leia imagined all their thoughts, hopes and fears for the future. It was true. Here of all places they were completely overlooked. Leia patted Amilyn’s hip to get her attention then blushed as she realised her arm had settled comfortably around Amilyn’s waist and their sides bumped as they walked. Amilyn didn’t pause her slow stride or turn, merely moved her head closer to Leia’s. Somehow, Leia felt strongly that she could trust this odd girl from Gatalenta. She remembered her father’s words when she described Amilyn to him with her heart beating hard, sure her voice would crumble and pronouncing harsh judgement as cover: _don’t be too quick to write people off._  
“I have been trying to get information on a couple of planets but the official database has been wiped,” said Leia so softly her words were almost a mumble, feeling relief at not being the only person in her tight circle of trust who knew. 

Amilyn said nothing for a minute, merely helped them weave through the crowd. Leia wondered if her desire to be anonymous tonight had rubbed off on Amilyn. Eventually, Amilyn moved closer and said, “How much can you really find out about a planet from a database? Climate, economic status, structure of government, sure. But none of the things that really matter.”

Leia halted so abruptly that Amilyn lost her for a second. She thought of the disparity between the official files on Wobani and the reality of the desperate and enforced poverty she had seen in her disastrous humanitarian mission. She thought of Tarkin’s slimy words of warning that she would have to choose the right side. She looked at Amilyn, calm mind settled at last, and smiled. Tomorrow, fresh from enough sleep, she would make plans to visit Crait. 

But tonight she had a cold and empty apartment waiting for her without even Twovee to chase the echoes from the vacant rooms. She held on to Amilyn again, slipping both arms around the taller girl’s waist as people parted to pass them on both sides without a glance. “Are you staying in the dorms?” she asked. “I’m in my family’s apartment, rattling around like the bead in a whistle.”  
Amilyn smiled, kissed Leia softly and said, “When I was a young girl I used to ask to be allowed sleepovers, but my parents never allowed it.”  
“Well,” said Leia with a grin. “Your parents are not here to forbid you and I invite you to stay with me tonight. Will you?”

Amilyn nodded and Leia led her home.


End file.
